I've been meaning to put this topic up for a while...but keep forgetting

I would be a great way to get to know each other if we introduce ourselves and tell us a few things about ourselves. What you tell is totally up to you, but here are a few suggestions:

- where are you from, country and club, where you play - how long you've been playing (how old? )- playing style - level - job or what you do outside TT - other hobbies - how you stumbled upon this forum

My name is Alex, I'm 40yrs old and have been playing since I was about 10 (in Holland where I was born)! Unfortunately I didn't get any coaching until about 15 years ago, by which time my unorthodox style (or more accurately 'lack off') was well and truely set in concrete! I got coaching for about 6 months to get me past my lack of understanding of spin and anti / LP rubbers... This is when my interest in these rubbers started. I've also done level 0 and 1 coaching courses and a little bit of coaching...

I play a fast and spinny looping style game on my forehand, and a defensive LP style on my backhand... My game mainly revolves around spin. My highest level of playing was state league, but I've been playing state league reserves for many years now. I play for the Brighton district table tennis club, in South Australia.

Outside TT I'm an engineer in the electronics area. My hobbies are in electronics, computers and internet (hence the review website which I've been running for many years) and I love movies....

OK a little about myself. I’m 33 and live in Adelaide Australia. I was born in London and moved to Australia via NZ (3 nationalities so far). I work in IT – Sys Admin, hobbies outside of Table Tennis is probably gardening. I am almost self sufficient, just need some chickens, still working on that (WAF),. I also go windsurfing and surfing (almost as bad as my Table Tennis)

I also play at Brighton Table Tennis Club. I currently play in Div 5 which is up from Div 8 last year. I started playing TT seriously about 3 years ago, I have had a few coaching lessons, but I think my bad habits are there to stay, so I prefer just to play and pick up tips from some of the better players on Saturday at the club, especially the LP players, it’s handy having Alex at the club, he brings down lots of equipment to try!

I started playing with LP’s 2 years ago after reading the description of 755, I have been hooked ever since. I have a big looping forehand (not very consistent), I use my LP for setting up shots and returning serves. I would describe my play as passive aggressive.

I’m sure Alex told me about the forum, otherwise I discovered it one boring day at work while trying to google the TT rubber which does it all.

Hi,
I am 63 and been playing since I was 10. I used to play for fun and went to tournements with my Dad. Was rated 1675 when I quit playing in 1972.
Mountain and rock climbing took all my time. I started playing again a few years ago and am taking it more seriousely now. My game is much better than it ever was, partly because of equipment and part because of practice. Got about 20 medals in archery and ping pong in the Senior Games in the last 3 years and won one regular tourney.
I have played shakehands and Seemiller grips and only use Seemiller now. I have LPs on one side. I play an all out aggressive loop, block, kill type game. I can chop just for varity. I have very good serves.
I am retired now but worked in electronic design most of my life. Worked in research for Xerox and on a Laser fusion project for years.
I live in the northwest US. Spend most of my time hunting, fishing, gold panning and other outdoor things. Indoors; swing dancing, waltz, 2 step.
Even though i retired, there is not enough time for everything. Tomorrow I get up at 3 AM to go look for bears and turkeys with the bow.
When it is not hunting season, I try to play 5 or 6 days a week. I do alot of coaching and learn alot from it as well. Teaching grade school kids is the hardest next to basement players that have bad habits.
Spent alot of $$$$ trying different equipment the last 3 years but have settled down to my Energy and Screw One on a fast bat.
I also have a business doing oil painting. If I can figure out how to post a pic, I will.

I am William, 40 yr old American male from South Central Los Angeles. I picked up TT while I was in an Army camp in Iraq last year and have over 20 yrs in the military. I love the sport and try to learn what can about it, but here there are no people to play against. I drive an hour to play a few matches one time a week with 3-4 LP friends and do a tourney once a month. My USATT rating will remain 1500-1600 until I can get a chance to practice. I hope to be in Germany this summer, that will help, lots of people play there. My playing style is aggressive attacking. I try to loop both sides and even setup BH finishes, but sometimes I fail to press the attack and it plays against me. I speak several languages, have several trades, enjoy fitness training, and spend a lot of my time roaming the internet. My interests are really too many to list, hardware/software/networks, financial management, travel, sports, to name only a few. I am usually technical and have a different sense of humor which may not exactly work all the time. I sound all long winded, but I really give a care about people and issues.

Nice to meet you all. I'm not one of the more active posters here but I'll tell a bit about myself anyway. My name is Trevor and I'm a 40 year old Canadian guy living in Southern Ontario. I belong to a club in Newmarket, Ontario, about a half hour drive from where I live, and play there twice a week. I started playing TT in 1981, in high school, played for 5 years, then stopped because of other commitments until about 2 years ago when my wife bought me a table for christmas. I have 2 boys now, so there's never a problem putting together a quick game at home.
My style of play is more attack than defend. I prefer to loop and smash, but I'll switch to blocking if the need arises. My youngest boy has a similar style while my oldest boy loves playing a blocking/looping style and uses LP's to great effect.
I don't know what my level is because I haven't had a rating since high school and I can't remember what it was then. Judging by the other players at the club, and their ratings, I'd guess that I'm somewhere between 1500 and 1700.
Outside of TT I'm a communications technician for one of the largest communications companies in Canada. It used to be an outside job until I was diagnosed with MS and had to move indoors. However, I've since got my sights on a new outdoor job that will satisfy both my desires and the doctors orders.
My other hobbies are writing fiction (half way through a novel right now), hunting, fishing, camping, gardening and anything else I can do outdoors.
I found this forum from Alex's signature on another site. My son wanted to use LP's so I came here for advice and never left. I like this site, not just for the information but for the relaxed, non-combative atmosphere. There are too many hostile people on the internet so it's nice to find an easy going site like this one.

Hi, my name is Graham, and it's been 4 weeks since I last bought a TT rubber. I wanted to order one yesterday but phoned a friend who helped be through the craving.

I live in country NSW and started playing TT 10 months ago. In that time I've progressed from 29/30 to 9th/30. My aim is to be the 4th best in the club by Christmas, and second best by the following Christmas.

I play Hookshot's modified Seemiller grip, and am slowly developing a mean b/h inverted loop while close to the table. It's the same as a shakehand b/h loop, but with your wrist rolled over to use the inverted side of the bat. Leaning this grip has really slowed down my progress, but I think it will make me a much stonger player in the long run, as I will be a close to the table 2 winged looper/blocker with slow l/p for receiving serves and drop shots. Many thanks to Hookshot for e-mailing me photos of his strokes. (If only he'd get a video made- hint, hint!)

Having 2 backhands (ie inverted + pips) takes twice the training but makes me more unpredictable to play against. I'm surprised no one is doing this on the world scene, seeing it would be really easy for l/p defenders to change from Seemiller back to shakehand during the game, ie after looping a fast no-spin serve (if it comes back).

Hey guys, my name is Kevin. I'm from New Jersey, but I currently go to college in Arkansas (don't ask why...it's a long story). I'm 21 years old, and I've been playing for about five years, mostly at a club in NJ near my house.
I had some informal-type coaching the first couple of years by some of the better players in the club, and that helped me get up to around 1500 or so, but I soon switched to long pips which dropped my level a little as I learned to chop. For the past three years, I've been unable to play more than about 4 months out of the year b/c no one really plays at my college and there are no clubs near me. So I'm not sure what my current rating is, but hopefully I'll find out soon when I go back for the summer. I love playing away from the table, chopping with backhand and countering with forehand, and I'm working on incorporating more twiddling into my game.

Outside of table tennis, I enjoy reading (I'm working on a major in English), and any kind of outdoor activity such as: camping, fishing, hiking etc. I'm also a musician and am working on an album right now, which I'm hoping to have done by the end of the year.

I live in Maryland, USA, originally from Thailand. No wonder why my English sucks big time. Need to take one more year to finish MBA course.

Started playing at 10 with my brother, I was an attacker and he was a defender with some Yasaka LP(OX) about a year then we were hooked with golf for 18 years and just stopped playing golf 2 years ago(Handicap 4). Now you know what bogeyhunter comes from.

I started playing TT again after quitting golf as an attacker for a year but my heart is always with LP.
Funny thing is that my brother now plays all out attack and his rating would be around 1950 - 2000...I really hated the coach who didn't let us picked what we wanted to play when we started playing.
Now I'm 29. Have been playing with LP for 1 yr and 1 months.
My style? watch my video. My rating has been rising, rising, rising and stopped for 3-4 months. I'm working on my footwork.

Hello. My name is as you can guess, Joe. I'm 41 and live in SW Ohio (USA) with my wife of 21 years and 3 kids. My son is 18 and starts college in Sept and have 2 girls 11 and 9. My occupation is Law Enforcement. Been a cop for 17 years now and cant wait till I can retire. Hobbies are TT, softball and watching my kids grow. Not much time for anything else.
I started playing TT in a bar (pub) for money in 1997. Then some guys from a local club showed up and whipped everyones butt. They talk us into coming to the club and then I found out just how popular TT was. I did my first tourney in 1998 and finished 2nd. Kinda screwed around for the next few years between softball and TT. A tourney here and there. Lost the sponser for softball in 2004 so I got serious about TT. Made the switch to LP in 2004 and got back into tourneys in 2005. Now my USATT rating is up to 1932 without a coach and I hope to be up to a solid 2100 player by next fall.
My game is anywhere from a close-to-the-table-blocker to off the table chopper. I very rarely attack unless it is a easy smash. If you have seen the way the Dr. N plays that is the game I have. I have spent countless hours watching that DVD and I am getting close. Thats all for now. CYA!!

One more thing, I JUST GOT A DR. NEUBAUER SHIRT IN THE MAIL!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahhaha. One more thing to piss off some of the guys at my club.HAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well, my name is Rudy and live in Sydney. Started playing TT long ago in high school for a while and couple months ago decided to pick-up what I left since then.

Now I am in mid 30s and work as accountant. My current game is terrible and my knowledge of TT equpiments is getting better - thanks to this forum and all of you who answer my questions.

My current project is to find a club to play regularly and hopefully find a good coach to work on my spin strokes. I think I like the one place I just visited days ago in Cammeray / North Sydney. I have no ambition to join any competition, but would like to play decently in a club.

I'm the only Brit on here so far. I'm Richard from Suffolk in England.

Playing style - still working on that really! Awkward counter-hitter, I guess. It depends so much on opposition - if it's lower league then I'm very aggresive, but against a more attack orientated, more skilled opponent, I'm defending up and back from the table, but always looking to counter and kill, either forhand, or occasional pre-meditated twiddled backhand. (Just wish more of those b/h's would go on!) Most defence is at the table, playing angles and a strength I have is to play long and then drop ball short. But I find now I am rising through the leagues, the need to get back to defend is greater.

Alternative playing style - Immoral - well, that's what one person told me anyway! I'm as popular as all the rest of you long pip users!

Level - I play in 2 local leagues, in the top division in 1, and just promoted to the top in the other. I play in the Ipswich & District Table Tennis League, for which I am about to become league secretary, and also in the Colchester and District Table Tennis League - both have websites if you wanted to look, although the Ipswich one is most up to date. In Ipswich, my team has finished top to win promotion to the Premier division. In Colchester, my team just hung on to top division status.

I work in Insurance - yawn - enough about that.

Other hobbies - I lurve Golf. Used to play Squash and Badminton and Tennis, but I have 3 slipped disks in my neck, so these more violent sports had to go. I miss badminton terribly. My wife doesn't as I'm in more now!

I guess it was this injury which pushed my table tennis improvement. At first all sports were tough but as I learned to manage my problem, I realised I would be able to continue playing TT, and I've gone from 1 match per week for 7 months of the year, to playing 2 x per week, plus a weekly practice. A lot of people I play think my rise through our local leagues is only due to pimples. But I've only used them for the past 24 months. I've gone from our bottom division to top in the course of around 7 years, mainly through match practice and now, playing more and more. I would find it hard to go back though - I can't ever see me playing with conventional gear - it's just not me now.

Stumbled on the forum - actually I think I was directed here by Mr Speedy who emailed me a link on my DTTW account!

Enough of my waffle. I'll sign off with a summary of my various set ups.

In use:-

Hallmark Combination Ultra, Tango Ultra 2mm f/h and Scalpel OX b/h

Experimenting with:-

Hallmark Comb Ultra, Friendship 802-40 pro (from this website) 2mm and Scalpel OX b/h - not had a chance to use yet.

Joola R*1, Tango Ultra 2mm and Inferno OX - I love this set up for attack - the short pips off this fast and fat balsa blade are bullet-like and still give great control, but struggling to control inferno against a fast loop. I could do it with time, I think, so will persevere, cos I can see that if I can get this, the set-up is mega-dangerous. Also, the blade is smaller than my usual oversize set-up, so it feels tiny and puts me off!

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